Our last night in the backpackers

Hi everyone.

We had another amusing breakfast story today. I am beginning to think ‘breakfast at backpackers’ could be a good title for a book. Anyway, this couple came in and asked in very bad English and very politely ‘could they have a special diet for his wife’s breakfast’. The lady serving cereal, toast and full english breakfasts looked a bit non plussed and asked what would they like? The husband didn’t know and ended up ringing his daughter who could obviously speak English well. The kitchen hand talked on the cell phone for a while describing what they had and then came back and said ‘she can have weetbix’ – it obviously wasn’t a gluten free diet – I suspect fresh fruit would have gone down a treat.

The shower played up twice in a row, going cold and then completely stopping when Harry was covered in soap and later on when I was half way through washing my hair. A cold trickle flowed through eventually and so we managed. Apparently the loft we were in was recently converted to the rooms and they have had the plumber back two times already cos it hasn’t worked well. I think the plumber will be back a third time!!

It was a nice sunny day yesterday but the wind had a bite to it. The weather seems very similar to Wellington – unpredictable – I quite like it that way but it will probably become more stable once we get a bit closer to summer.

We went back to the employment agencies. They decided to not put me forward for a very mundane job but for another which is better paid and a little bit more interesting. Haz goes back today as there is a possibility of getting a temporary job in the motor insurance area. It would be helpful to know all about that here. It will be good to get a temp job while we wait for something more up our line to come up.

We had a lovely walk up the river today. Took a couple of hours – saw some old tug boats and steamers and the SS Great Britain which is in one of the photos – the first steamer to take immigrants etc to NZ and Australia – you will notice they didn’t want to risk not getting somewhere and still had the good reliable sails on board – it would have been cheaper as well I imagine as the winds got up. We saw a lock open for a boat and sat at one end as it filled up and opened at the other.

Outside the youth hostel is a busker. He has been drumming a very monotonous tune on his bongo drum for the last few days (we reckon about 5 or 6 hours at a time). Yesterday, his bongo drum had gone (it was quite sad) and replaced by a cardboard box.
We went to the post office today to get applications for a drivers licence. Haz might be considered for driving jobs but he needs a UK license. The PO was crowded as it seems to do everything eg sell stuff, arrange finance, bureau de change, post letters and parcels – it took us back to the NZPO 20 years ago. Admittedly it was lunch time but Harry stood in a queue of about 20 people to get the applications. I went around and asked the finance man who wasn’t doing anything and he gave us the applications. No, I didn’t walk out and leave Harry in the queue!!! Anyway, what a saga to get a licence. Apparently you have to pay £45 to change your licence to a UK one. We haven’t read all the documentation yet but Anne says you have to post in your NZ with the application and they do not return it. It takes about 14 days and you can’t drive while you don’t have a licence. The only option to keep your NZ licence I think is to actually sit the whole test from scratch. Anne told us also that everytime you change your address you have to get your licence redone and you can’t drive while you wait for it to be renewed. We think we might stick with our international one for a while. The international one is not valid unless we have the NZ one with it.

In the kitchen over dinner we talked to the kiwi couple from Auckland. They have found a flat and are moving in at the end of the week. They are paying £600 a month, and on top of that have power, phone, council tax (rates) etc which makes it about £700. They also have to buy lots of stuff as it only has a bed, table and a chair. Our £400 a month doesn’t seem to bad when compared to others. I had a sudden thought that we could buy bikes and bike to work as it is very flat – reminds me of my Christchurch days. Once we are settled we just might do that as we would also enjoy cycling in the weekends.

Other interesting things that we have found out. 1 July England goes smoke free, you don’t have to wear a cycle helmet though we think we will and it is illegal to talk on a cell phone without using a hands free kit in a car (though that doesn’t seem to stop people though).
That’s it for the day.